The angel who fell from the sky

The cold wind immediately blew over his body, making it shivering. The clouds gradually moved away, and Jack just flew down. Some time after he spread his wings and soared, balanced on the chosen height, and started choosing a place for landing. His imagination worked hard, thinking about quite a lot of places to go, but time was limited, so he was searching for something simple for the first time. Flying down, he soon saw a piece of land, framed with water from two sides. He thought then about visiting humans’ beaches, and started landing just to that earth’s corner.

***

During the fall the temperature dropped to acceptable levels in Spain, a simple jacket was enough for not to feel cold in the morning. And Armando would never go somewhere in such an early hour, if only his one old known friend, who just happened to come visit this town, hadn’t asked him to drive her to the airport. Well, he couldn’t say no to her, he already parked the car, and was going back home through an empty park. Nothing, as it seemed, should have created problems at the end of his vacation, right before his head was blown by very strong wind. No one would pay much attention to it, but then the sound of fabric collapse appeared. He turned around, and needed some time to understand what could cause this clap, and then he heard a voice, seeming to appear from nowhere. — «Oh wowee, sei un essere umano!» The man couldn’t understand which side to turn his head to, before another human did not jump onto him somewhere from the height. Sighing from surprise, a stranger started to talk again: — «Hello!» — he said in English. A teenage boy, who seemed to appear from nowhere, jumped, but it seems to better say — flew away, letting the man to look at himself closer. The clothes, all being white, totally white, gave an odd and blurry suggestion of where this boy could have come from. If it was the only thing to pay attention to, he’d start to look for a bracelet with something, only if the boy’s back weren’t showing inconspicuous…How could he peek out unnoticed two long… «Oh my, what is this?..» The Spaniard’s eyes opened wide from amaze, his pupils darted left and right, trying to observe the human fully, but was he a human? Armando lowered his head and then noticed that the boy’s legs were not on the ground, soaring in the sky, then he raised his head sharply, returning his gaze to the place where it was previously, suddenly meeting the gaze of that creature. The wings. The huge wings were growing up from his back. White. Wings. For a moment, fear took his breath away. The young man, who had appeared out of nowhere, smiled even wider, and then, bending down, parried to the ground, folding his wings during this maneuver. He came closer, way too fast to Salazar who only could make a step away, and circled around him a few times, rustling wings. That was the sound he had heard then. — «So you are a human, a real, yeas?» — he stopped in front of the man’s face, whispering, looking at his eyes. — «How wonderful!» After this phrase, the youth stretched out his hands, grabbed his cheeks with his fingers and pulled them to the sides, and their owner was thrown into a slight tremor from these actions. Suddenly his smile disappeared, and he looked confused. — «You’re not soft», — he said quietly. Armando wasn’t prepared for this, unable to hold back a nervous laugh, and asked: — «Excuse me?» — «I thinked humans are soft», — the youth said, making another circle fastly around the man. He stopped for a second, looking at his face, and then, flapping his wings, he grabbed his hair with his hands, and placed his hands on the head, not touching the sole with his feet again. Salazar froze, he had no idea what to do, cautiously turned his head around, looking at slowly spreading wings near his hands: a huge amount of feathers can be seen from such a short distance, a slow the convergence of the wingtips practically in front of his nose gave the feeling that now these wings would close into an oval cocoon, sealing them both inside. Just as abruptly as the boy had jumped on the Spaniard, he flapped his wings, raising the wind around them, and found himself in front of the man again. He bent his body, putting his hands behind his back, and said, looking practically from under his brows: — «You’re tall.» Armando didn’t know at all what to answer, although he definitely needed to ask something to clarify the situation. — «Yes, I… know?» — spaniard said slowly. — «And who you… are?» — «Ah. I am Jack. Angel from this sky», — the guy began, waving his arms. His wings too. — «I come to here to taste your sweets!» The brain could not process the information received for some time, and from lack of understanding all that was left was to stand with my mouth open. — «What?» — the man said, unable to admit what was happening. — «Sweets!» — he shouted, — «I told to you have very good sweets! I want to try it!» Those wings looked like mockery… Salazar took a deep breath, trying to hold a hysterical laugh, and started to look around searching for someone who could possibly come with this boy. To move so quickly and be able to move wings at will? Even acknowledging how far technology is developed now compared to the past, is that still possible? It resembled a prank, very much. He cleared his throat to get attention and tried to keep the laughter out of his voice as he continued their conversation: — «Okay, okay, that was very funny», — Armando said, shove his hands in his windbreaker pockets. — «Were you alone? How did you do that?» — «What did?» — the boy asked again in bewilderment. — «You somehow managed to move so fast. But wings, how did you make them move too? And who helped you to rise into the air?» — «What you mean?» To relieve some of the tension in his body, the man began to walk from side to side. — «I asked how you made these wings move?» A puzzled look appeared on the guy’s face, after which he raised two wings up, the tip of one of them he bent in an attraction to himself, unable to understand the essence of the question. — «What you mean?» — he asked again. — «You say you’re an angel, right?» — Salazar said, laughing for a second though. — «Angel, who came from the sky?» «I need to stop smiling immediately, he can become upset. Well, if he’s joking, he should understand to what reaction it would lead» — «Oh, you don’t know? You don’t know we exist?» When the youth asked this question, Armando thought his face changed somehow, but he couldn’t understand what emotion had taken hold of him then. But he felt uneasy somehow. The youth chuckled quietly, folding his wings, then raised his arms to shoulder level, bent one at the elbow and touched the bend with the fingers of the other, and extended his index finger forward. A few seconds later, the air around him sparkled, and then a lump flew out of his hand with a «pump» sound, then rose higher, and something began to descend on Salazar. — «Opsh», — a soft cry was heard and the angel raised his palms to his mouth. — «Allora, non è quello che volevo fare…» The boy fiddled around a bit more, taking a slightly different pose, concentrating better this time, and pointed his hand at the man again. The man could only watch as the glowing ball, with a decidedly higher speed, did not disintegrate into small particles and flew into his face. The thing that flew in turned out to be ice water. — «It worked!» — the boy shouted, this time looking pleased with the result. But Armando was not happy. Hissing «damn, it’s cold», he quickly raised his palms to his face, wiping away the remaining water, the cold burned his face, and what did not get on his skin, got on his jacket. — «What can you say? You still don’t believe me?» — he asked with a smile on his face. He looked at the boy with a stunned look, not understanding where he could get such icy water from. Well, he can’t believe in magic? At his age? No, no, no, no, no… — «No, I don’t», — the man said quietly, shaking his head. The youth made an offended expression, said disappointedly «e-e-eh», then pouted and assumed a thoughtful pose. However, he didn’t stand like that for long, and at one point he jumped up, flew up, and clapped his hands above his head. The clap was quite loud, but along with it, bright colors sparkled in the air, and then silver smoke with sparkles poured out, as if it was a clap from a firework launch and now confetti was glittering in the sky. All he could do was watch these antics. There were no trees nearby from which to throw something… The Spaniard looked puzzled as the fireworks that had lit up practically above his head went out, not knowing what to think about it. Should he believe it? But people had already risen to the skies, the same planes fly at enormous heights, had they really missed it? You wouldn’t miss something like that. Nobody wouldn’t miss it, right? When he lowered his head, the boy was already standing next to him again, waiting for his reaction. Armando took a step back from surprise, more instinctively, just in case. — «Okay, that was a good firework», — he said, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture. — «What do you want from me?» — «Sweets!» — he shouted. — «Sweets? You mean, from me? I don’t have any.» — «You mean at all? At all, at all, at all?» — the boy chattered, this time pacing around Salazar on his feet. — «Well, I can guide you around this town…» After hearing this, the boy jumped onto him and shouted: — «Really?!» — «Yes?» — the Spaniard said, leaning back uncertainly. — «Where we will go? Tell me, tell me!» It looks like he won’t be so easy to get rid of. How to give him what he wants? Take him to a cafe? And what to do with the wings? It doesn’t look like he controls them properly. His clothes are also interesting, very similar to… And it doesn’t matter, in short, you can’t go anywhere looking like that. — «Eh, listen…I would walk with you there, but it’s too early, you know?» Instead of answering, the boy tilted his head to the side, looking puzzled. Salazar just sighed, and tried to add gestures to his explanation. — «I said it’s too early now», — he repeated, — «everyone is sleeping.» The boy's head remained in the same position, but his eyes narrowed even more. — «Well, if you want, I may bring you to my home? I live nearby.» He reacted faster to this phrase, replying with a smile on his face and clapping hands. — «Yesi!»